Is Mitt Romney the best of all possible GOP candidates?

The series of anti-SOPA activism going on today has already claimed an early victory. Marco Rubio, the Florida Senator and Tea Party favorite, dropped his support after being a co-sponsor of the bill. Now other Senators are starting to announce their opposition.

The Secessionist laid out a legal opposition to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in his book, calling them unconstitutional. And yesterday, his soon-to-be running mate Marco Rubio presented a moral argument against them.

I would pay close watch to the skirmish between Rubio and the Tea party on immigration as a leading indicator. If the xenophobes still rule the Republican Party, they will miss out on this huge demographic opportunity. That doesn’t mean Democrats will capitalize, but it means Republicans won’t.

Americans have been watching the Teabaggers for almost two years now, and as it turns out, unbridled, spittle-producing rage isn’t very popular.

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have a rather whiny little piece in today’s Washington Post that basically says America hates Obama and want him to govern like a Republican. If that’s the case, in the wake of the 2010 Teahadist Revolution, why aren’t all of the Republican candidates wiping the floor with him?

If only the nation will pay attention, Florida has now become the perfect laboratory model for single-party Republican corporatist rule. When Alex Sink conceded to Rick Scott this morning, Republicans in Florida cemented a clean sweep of all statewide offices on the ballot. In addition, Republicans now hold over two thirds of the seats in both the Florida House and Florida Senate. Leading this merry band of corporatists will be Governor Rick Scott, who holds the distinction of having been CEO of the corporation that holds the record for the largest fine ever assessed ($1.7 billion) in settling Medicare fraud charges. With unemployment in the state now at 12 percent (pdf) and property values severely depressed from the burst property bubble, I see no way that a state without an income tax can withstand corporatist rule under these parameters without sliding into a New Depression.

Welcome to part two of FDL midterm election night liveblog (link to part one). For the most recent list of FDL top 108 House races to watch tonight go here You can also find my list of the twelve House races in early closing states that should give you a sense of how the night will go look here.

So far the results for Democrats have been very bad but don’t indicate that it will be a historic 70 seat plus tsunami.

The next Senator from Florida is almost certainly going to be Marco Rubio. Kendrick Meek and Charlie Crist split the center-left of the electorate and spent most of their time in the campaign beating each other up, while Rubio, unchallenged, coasted into the lead. The race has gotten so far out of hand now that I don’t think that the claim Crist would caucus with Democrats matters anymore.

Spotted this in the New York Times’ piece about Marco Rubio trying to run a slightly less Teabaggy campaign.